YMMV / Miraculous Ladybug SP03 - "Miraculous World: Paris"

• Fanfic Fuel:
  • There's a universe that has the alignments of the heroes and villains swapped. What would it be like to have a heroic Chloé or Lila? Evil Miraculous wielders from Paris, New York, or Shanghai? Speaking of which, there is a multiverse in the Ladybug series so anything and everything goes when it comes to different variations of the heroes and their loved ones.
  • The Supreme in the alternate reality somehow managed to seal Tikki and Plagg so that they couldn't fuse into Gimmi. What spell did he use to do that?
  • Tikki admits that not only does she know about the multiverse, but she exists in all of them simultaneously. That would mean that she (and possibly every kwami) has passive knowledge of their infinite counterpart's misadventures. That would include the movie, comic book tie-ins, the manga adaptation, the Ladybug PV and quite possibly every fanfic ever written.
• Fridge Brilliance: Betterfly mentions that out of all of the miraculous users in his world, he is the only one who isn't an Evil Hero and that he rebelled against the one who gave them their miraculous. On top of being an inversion of the main-universe's dynamic (the heroes are villains and the villains are heroes), it actually makes the most sense that it's the user of the Butterfly Miraculous would be the good guy. The Butterfly Miraculous imbues its wielder with a number of abilities, but most notably the power to sense the thoughts and emotions of those around them. Since Prime-Paris is thriving fairly well and Gabriel (a Machiavellian Control Freak) had procured his miraculous all on his own and uses it for selfish reasons, he singles out examples of rage and hurt for his own ends. Betterfly on the other hand lives in a Crapsack World tailor-made to be miserable and, if The Supreme is as bad as he says, it's unlikely he had any choice in becoming the butterfly. Betterfly must have been overwhelmed by suddenly feeling all the hopelessness his world endlessly emits, so becoming a hero might have been the only way he could have kept himself sane.
• Fridge Horror: How did Claw Noir know that a Cataclysm would have no effect on him? Most likely, he's already tried it on himself.
• Preemptive Shipping: Due to being the evil versions of the protagonists, it didn't take long for people to ship Shadybug and Claw Noir, even before the special premiered.
• Spoiled by the Format: With his team up with Shadybug and Claw Noir foiled, Monarch uses the Rooster Miraculous to give himself the power to travel to other universes in order to steal an alternate Ladybug and Cat Miraculous... When there are only a few minutes left in the special, and it's set very early into Season 5. Obviously, he won't succeed.
• Tainted by the Preview: Some fans were put off by the entire concept of the special once it was revealed, since it looked like Miraculous was deliberately riding the coattails of numerous other multiverse-centric superhero stories that had been released in the same year.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • The alignment swaps in the alternate universe are limited to Shadybug, Claw Noir, and Betterfly, leaving some fans disappointed that we didn't get to see a heroic Chloé or Lila (in the former's case, a throwaway line reveals she's just as bad in the alternate universe as her canon self) or villainous versions of any other heroic Miraculous wielders.
  • While Ladybug and Cat Noir have plenty of interactions with Shadybug and Claw Noir, Betterfly and Monarch never meet in the special proper. What could've happened had Gabe seen what a heroic version of him looked like?
  • It's explained that the evil universe is the way it is because of a villain called the Supreme essentially mandating it to be a miserable place. Despite this being the sort of problem that the heroes would have an interest in solving, not only is the Supreme is never dealt with onscreen but we never learn who the Supreme is or if they have a counterpart in the main universe.
• Unnecessary Makeover: Shadybug's costume, and Claw Noir's to a lesser extent, quickly got a positive reception in the fandom for looking unique and interesting compared to their counterparts' costumes. As such, those same fans called foul on the Good Costume Switch they performed at the end, making their costumes look closer to Ladybug and Cat Noir's and comparatively blander as a result.

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